Tux Machines

Linux kernel 6.1: Rusty release could be a game-changer

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 09, 2022

Linus Torvalds is happy to tell you that Linux release numbers aren't a big deal.

As the Linux supremo said of the 6.0 release: "Despite the major number change, there's nothing fundamentally different about this release – I've long eschewed the notion that major numbers are meaningful, and the only reason for a 'hierarchical' numbering system is to make the numbers easier to remember and distinguish."

With 6.1, however, there is something fundamentally different. For the first time in Linux's history, in addition to C, you'll be able to use another language, Rust, for kernel development.

Why? As Wedson Almeida Filho of Google's Android Team said, "We feel that Rust is now ready to join C as a practical language for implementing the kernel. It can help us reduce the number of potential bugs and security vulnerabilities in privileged code while playing nicely with the core kernel and preserving its performance characteristics."

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Also: Kernel 6.0.12 and Kernel 5.15.82 Available - PCLinuxOS